Solidarity Statements for Dyett Hunger Strikers!

BREAKING: Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) write an open letter to Alderman Will Burns on the Dyett Hunger Strike September 16, 2015Open Letter to Alderman Will Burns on the Dyett Hunger Strikefrom Julie Woestehoff, former Executive Director of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE)Dear Will,We first met many years ago when you were State Senator Emil Jones’s education aide. Many of us in the Chicago school reform community were impressed with you then, and felt that you understood what we cared about – that is, a strong parent and community voice in school governance, and strong public schools. We found you to be approachable, smart, and helpful – one of the good guys.I was pleased when you decided to run for office and was happy to vote for you to be my state representative and my alderman. We’ve had a very cordial relationship for many years.In 2013, the year after the school district voted to phase out Dyett, I wrote a blog post (http://pureparents.org/?p=20323) on the web site for PURE, a group I directed until my move out of state last year. The blog praised you and other aldermen for signing on to a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion. That 2013 resolution included the point that expansion of charter schools was undermining neighborhood school enrollment, and that traditional schools should not be closed for budgetary reasons while new charter schools were being opened.Considering this history, it is especially disappointing now to hear about your rejection of what many educators and others consider a very strong community proposal to revitalize Dyett High School, and your argument that Jitu Brown and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) are staging a hunger strike for Dyett merely to gain power and money.Most of us who toil in the trenches of community organizing and parent advocacy would find this argument hysterically funny if we had time to laugh. Compare, for example, the most recent reported salary of KOCO’s executive director –$63,000 — with that of, say, Robin Steans, executive director of the charter school-promoting corporate reform group Advance Illinois. Robin already has vast family wealth, and she still pulled down an annual salary of $178,000 in 2013. My point here is not to gratuitously poke at Robin, who has been a friend in the past, but to highlight what should be obvious — that wealthy, powerful people in this country have more handed to them on a plate than low-income, marginalized people could ever dream of. They need groups like KOCO to help raise their voices and concerns to policy makers.As PURE’s executive director from 1995-2014, I had a front row seat to KOCO’s outstanding work supporting public education, and have been pleased to see KOCO’s Jitu Brown become one of the nation’s most charismatic and courageous leaders in the fight to save democratic public education and to demand high-quality schools for all children. Their challenges to you over the years have arisen from what I believe is a reasonable analysis that there is a disconnect between your actions and the critical needs of some of your constituents. KOCO’s decision to sponsor a hunger strike is a reflection of their extreme frustration with you and other education policy makers. The fact that several members of your community have been willing to put their lives on the line to join them, and that others are actively supporting them, suggests that many share this frustration.I write to you now out of grave concern for my friends who are becoming ill after 30 days of this hunger strike, and for all of those children who need the adults around them to be the best leaders possible. I urge you to step back from past perceived grievances and take the first step to open up a sincere, meaningful dialogue with these members of your community who deserve your attention.Thank you and best wishes,Julie Woestehoffhttp://pureparents.org/?p=21358BREAKING: The Alliance To Reclaim Our Schools Writes An Open Letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel - Support Dyett Hunger StrikersAn Open and Urgent Letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel from Educators, Researchers, Academics and Community Groups NationwideMayor Emanuel,We are all supporters of the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School, and see both the proposal and the process as models for true investment in high quality public schools. We applaud the hunger strikers and the people that have come out to support them and we are heartened by your decision to re-open Dyett as an open-enrollment school.However, out of deep concern for the 15 hunger strikers and out of a belief that their proposal merits implementation, we call on you to take the critical next step and agree to:a curricular emphasis on green technology and to include “Green Technology” in the name of the school,the involvement of members of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School on the design team and in the selection of the principal,and an elected and fully empowered Local School Council.After all, it is the vision and tenacity of the African American community of Bronzeville that has led to the reopening of Dyett. A school that prepares our children to tackle the immediate problems of today simply makes sense. Green, sustainable, renewable energy sources make sense. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Dyett sits in the historic Washington Park with a fishing pond, natural grasses, and a successful student-run farm. It will be a national model with your support.Please take this next step and honor the hard work of community members, educators and organizations that went into the development of the original proposal which, if implemented with fidelity, will indeed provide a world class education to the young people of Bronzeville. Highly regarded education researchers and practitioners have stated the same.Please do what is right and please do it now.Signed,

The CRLN Stands in Support with the Dyett 12For over two years, the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) has been one of the organizations that coordinates a pastoral care program for unaccompanied children arriving at our borders in search of safety and refuge. Many of the children that we meet are undoubtedly among the most vulnerable children on the planet, escaping unimaginable violence and poverty. Just as we have committed to stand by them and to fight for the protection of their basic rights, today we express our full support and solidarity with the community leaders at Dyett who have been on hunger strike for more than two weeks now to save Dyett High School, Bronzeville’s last publicly-operated, open-enrollment, school from closing.

In Latin America, violence takes many shapes; sometimes violence manifests itself through violent crimes and actions that are carried out with near impunity, often by government officials themselves. Sometimes it can take on subtler forms: deprivation of economic opportunity, quality education, healthcare coverage, and of other factors which are so essential to the ability of individuals to lead dignified human lives. We interpret the closing of public schools, primarily in Black and Brown communities throughout Chicago, in the same way that we understand schemes of privatization and dispossession in Latin America: as an act of violence against communities of color.

As immigrants, the sons and daughters of immigrants, volunteers with the unaccompanied children, and people of faith committed to immigrant justice and justice in Latin America, we are humbled by the valiant actions of the Dyett 12 whose fast is reminiscent of the causes of justice described in the Bible.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6

We applaud the Dyett 12 and stand by their decision to resist injustice, to take--as so many immigrants have been forced to do--their children’s future into their own hands, even if and when this means risking perilous journeys, enduring hunger, and risking one’s health. We are confident that they will prove victorious in their quest and also call on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others to put into action the proposal for a Global Leadership and Green Technology High School that the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School helped develop, reminding the Mayor that “if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10BREAKING: Elevate Energy Writes An Open Letter to CPS Board in Support of Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School
Chicago Board of Education Office 1 N. Dearborn St., Suite 950
Chicago, IL 60602

Thursday, August 28, 2015 Dear Board:
Elevate Energy is pleased to provide this letter supporting the green aspects of the proposal
“Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School”. This community-designed proposal
created by the Coalition to Revitalize Walter H. Dyett High School—a broad coalition of parents,
education specialists, and students—has a strong sustainability focus with the potential to
transform Dyett into a gem community school worthy of national attention.

As a Chicago-based nonprofit, Elevate Energy promotes smarter energy use for all. We design and
implement energy efficiency programs that lower costs, protect the environment and ensure the
benefits reach those who need them most. The proposal for Dyett Global Leadership and Green
Technology High School caught our attention as one that would well-equip students for entering into
the growing green workforce, especially in the energy efficiency and clean energy industries. Our
staff was impressed by the integration of environmental and building science into a strong STEM
curriculum. Further, the proposal takes a thoughtful approach to engaging special and high needs
students to ensure all students have full access to these educational opportunities.

As an organization that believes in exemplifying our values, we have found that demonstrating
sustainability practices in our own office building helps further our goals. In this vein,
transforming Dyett into a LEED-certified school will not only help reduce carbon emissions; it can
spur additional youth-led sustainability initiatives in the community. Students participating in
energy benchmarking on the Dyett campus will become more civically engaged. Those that take part in
hands-on learning experiences in conjunction with the school’s rehab will learn practical
applications for their textbook knowledge. Planned partnerships with nationally recognized entities
like the Chicago Botanic Garden and The Plant will expose students to tangible conservation efforts
and technology happening in their own city. To round out the curriculum, prepping interested youth
over 18 to test for LEED Green Associate certification is an innovative way of ensuring career
readiness. With 10 LEED-certified employees on staff, we are thrilled by the idea that a Dyett
graduate could one day become an Elevate intern or employee.

As Elevate continues to partner with Chicago’s south side communities on sustainability
initiatives—including energy efficiency in existing buildings, smart-grid integration and community
renewable energy projects—Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School could become
another focal point of our engagement. We hope this letter of support aids in the advancement of
this proposal.

I am writing to
express my solidarity with your struggle to defend your school and your
community, in opposition to the corporate-backed plans to cut and privatise
education.

Colleagues on the NUT
National Executive have been following the ongoing battles of the CTU and
Chicago parents and students against school closures and the imposition of
charter schools. The news that Dyett parents have been forced to mount a
hunger-strike in order for their voices to be heard shows both the callousness
of the Chicago Board of Education but also your determination to fight for the
future of your communities and your youth.

Teachers, parents and
students here in London face a similar struggle against local and national
politicians who also want to impose the privatising policies backed
internationally by the ‘Global Education Reform Movement’. Globally, we have to
stand together against the GERM. In my borough of Lewisham, ‘SAIL’ - ‘Stop Academies in Lewisham’ - has,
so far successfully, built a campaign of teacher strikes, pupil protests and community demonstrations to oppose attempts to
turn our community schools into ‘academies’ – our equivalent of ‘charter
schools’. Like you, we are determined to
win our battle.

On behalf of SAIL
colleagues and as an NUT National Executive member, please accept this message
of solidarity as we add our voices to all those calling out to #FightForDyett.

Yours in solidarity,

Martin Powell-Davies,

Member of the
National Executive of the National Union of Teachers, London, U.K.

PS I hope these
YouTube videos can also help carry a message of struggles from London to
Chicago:

BREAKING: Presidents of AERA support plan for Dyett Global
Leadership and Green Technology High School and community process.

AERA (American Education Research Association)
is the main professional education research organization in the U.S. with more
than 25,000 members. Prof. Jeannie Oakes and Prof. Gloria Ladson-Billings are
among the most well-respected education scholars in the U.S.

September 2, 2015

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to support the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett
High School and the plan to create an open-enrollment, community school with a
global leadership and green technology theme. This school would serve Chicago’s
Bronzeville community.

One of the cornerstones of a democratic society is the
ability to actively participate and decide our one’s own destiny in ways that
enhance “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” For the average citizen
the place where s/he has the opportunity to engage in democratic activity is in
the neighborhood and community and the institution closest to the community is
the school. In democratic societies this means citizens have a real say so in
electing school board members, vetting administrators, and voicing their
preferences for curricular and instructional approaches.

I am currently the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, some 135 miles northwest of Chicago.
For the past 24 years I have been active in Chicago school reform, consulting
on the Annenberg Challenge, working with colleagues at the Consortium for
Chicago School Reform, and meeting with individual administrators and groups of
teachers throughout the city. But, more than a professor and researcher I have
an extensive career as a public school teacher in the School District of
Philadelphia. I am well acquainted with the challenges many urban districts are
facing and realize those districts would delight in the kind of engagement and
forward thinking that is reflected in the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High
School represents. By comparison, community members and alumni at Milwaukee’s
North Division High School have done little to create a comprehensive plan for
revitalization focused on achievement, community engagement, and cultural
relevance.

One of the nation’s founders, Thomas Jefferson stated, “If a
nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects
what never was and never will be.” The Coalition has made clear its desire to
help build educated, community-minded, active citizens who contribute to the
lifeblood of Chicago. This plan is designed not have students “escape” poverty,
violence, and the scourge of drugs but rather to have students be citizens that
“END” poverty, violence, and the scourge of drugs.

The willingness to fight for one’s school is a part of an
ongoing legacy in the African American community. Communities that engage in
this work are likely to stay engaged which bodes well for the students,
faculty, staff, and administrators who would make Dyett High School their home.

Again, I strongly urge decision makers to take advantage of
this civic engagement and energy, adopt the Coalition’s plan, and create an
ideal school environment for this community.

Sincerely,

Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor

Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education

Former President, American Educational Research Association
(2005-2006)

-

August
27, 2015

To Whom it May
Concern:

I write to offer my
strong support for the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School and its plan
to transform Dyett High School into a sustainable open-enrollment, community
school with a global
leadership and green technology theme serving the Bronzeville communities in the city of Chicago. I understand that the Coalition has submitted
its plan to the Chicago Public Schools in response to Request for Proposals for
creating a new Dyett High School.

I have reviewed the plan in light of
my decades of experience as an education researcher by
training and profession. As a UCLA
Professor, I have spent years studying efforts to create high-quality and
equitable schools for young people living in communities like
Dyett’s—communities of concentrated poverty and racial isolation. I currently serve as President of the
American Educational Research Association, an organization of more than 25,000
education researchers. Based on my
experience and expertise, I find the Coalition’s plan to be outstanding.

Let me point to
just a few of the remarkably strong elements of the plan. First, the Coalition, including the Chicago Botanic
Garden, DuSable Museum, the University of Illinois, Chicago, the Chicago
Teachers Union, Teachers for Social Justice, and the Kenwood Oakland Community
Organization, is a perfect example of community involvement and
investment. Its plan taps into these impressive, high-capacity community
partners to create an academically rich curriculum focused on helping the young
people in the neighborhood achieve and succeed.
The plan is also grounded in the strongest evidence we have about
programs and practices most likely to increase the achievement and success
(e.g., graduation rates, post-high school benefits) of the community’s young
people.

For
example, the Coalition plan features proven elements that improve, rather than
undermine, our public schools and help kids learn, such as the following:

•expanded
programs that help disadvantaged students overcome challenges like poverty and
poor nutrition;

•positive
discipline practices such as
restorative justice and social and emotional learning supports, so students
grow and contribute to the school community and beyond;

•transformational
parent and community engagement in
planning and decision-making; and

•links between
the success of the school and the development of the community as a whole.

The Coalition’s plan clearly has benefitted from
several years of research, planning, organizing, and building community will. As such, it stands a good chance of
succeeding, even under the very challenging circumstances that urban high
schools face today.

In
sum, my professional view is that the Coalition plan is excellent and should be
chosen in response to CPS’ RFP for Dyett.
Parents and community members worked for years developing a solid set of
ideas. In response to the RFP, they followed all of the district’s
procedures and produced an impressive 50-page blueprint for turning their ideas
into sound, evidence-based program and practices. It is unconscionable that parents and
community members have spent almost two weeks in a hunger strike in an effort
to get the CPS board to vote on their plan.

I
understand that the mayor's office also has proposals in hand from charter
operators eager to take over the school, and these may be groups that have more
political influence than the Coalition. Nevertheless,
it would be indefensible to select one of these proposals over the fine
community-based option of the Coalition plan, particularly given the lack of
evidence nationwide that the charter strategy would benefit the young people of
Bronzeville.

If
great cities like Chicago are to reclaim the promise of public education for
all children, they must turn away from failed experiments that remove community
control and instead bring communities together to create schools that deliver
the quality education for college, career and civic life that all our children
deserve. There is no better place to
start than with the Coalition’s plan for Dyett High School.

We urge Mayor Emanuel, CPS Board of Education President Clark, and CEO Claypool to immediately approve the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett proposal for the Dyett High School of Global Leadership and Green Technology. On August 17, 2015, twelve parents, grandparents, and supporters began a hunger strike to press CPS to implement this plan for a public open enrollment neighborhood school in Bronzeville. Reverend Jesse Jackson and CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey have joined the hunger strike.

Since CPS voted in 2012 to phase out Dyett—the last open-enrollment high school in Bronzeville—hundreds of parents and community residents have done everything possible, including following the procedures set forth by CPS, to petition CPS to implement the Coalition plan to revitalize Dyett High School which closed in Spring 2015. African American children in Bronzeville deserve the same high quality education available to children in other areas of the city. The plan for Dyett High School of Global Leadership and Green Technology is based on solid education research and was developed through extensive community engagement over five years in collaboration with education experts. The high school will be well-rounded, academically rigorous, culturally relevant, inquiry-based, grounded in the Bronzeville community and enriched by involvement of an impressive coalition of green technology, urban agriculture, and community organizations and university partners. It will be a school that any parent in Chicago would want to send their child to. The process of community involvement and the proposal for the school should be a model for revitalizing neighborhood public schools in Chicago.

As educators, who understand that democratic community participation in local public schools is a vital component of school success, we support the coalition plan to revitalize Dyett High School and strongly urge the CPS Board of Education to support their efforts as well.

Signers

1.Rico Gutstein

Professor

Curriculum and Instruction

University of Illinois at Chicago

2.Pauline Lipman

Professor

Educational Policy Studies

Director, Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education

University of Illinois at Chicago

3.Federico R. Waitoller

Assistant Professor

University of Illinois at Chicago

4.Ann M. Aviles

Assistant Professor

Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies

Northeastern Illinois University

5.Gabriel Cortez

Associate Professor

Education Leadership and Development

Northeastern Illinois University

6.Barbara Ransby

Professor and Director of the Social Justice Initiative

University of Illinois at Chicago

7.Elizabeth Todd-Breland

Assistant Professor

University of Illinois at Chicago

8.William Ayers

Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar

University of Illinois at Chicago

9.John W. Zeigler

Director, Egan Office of Urban Education and Community Partnerships at Steans Center

CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—August
30, 2015. Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) stands
in support of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett, a group of
outraged community members, teachers and parents who have been on hunger strike
for education justice since August 17th. The hunger strike is in response to
Chicago Public Schools' failure to adopt their plan to create Dyett Global
Leadership Green Technology High School. Strikers have said
they will keep demonstrating until this plan - and this plan only - is adopted
by the Board of Education. Dyett, which is currently shuttered, is the only
remaining open-enrollment high school in Bronzeville, which is both majority
and historically Black. The board's failure not only immediately endangers the
lives of the twelve hunger strikers, but points to the city's consistent
disregard for Black life in general, and the wellness of Black children in
particular.

On
August 20th, BYP100, the Dyett hunger strikers, and other organizers
and concerned citizens rallied at Chicago Police Headquarters. We
packed the Chicago Police Board hearing and outer pavilion to demand that
Officer Dante Servin be fired for the murder of Rekia Boyd in 2012. As the
hearing went on inside, Dyett protesters took the mic to speak about their
cause, noting that anti-Black police violence, school closings, underfunding in
majority Black communities, and a complete lack of accountability for the
perpetrators of these destructive acts are interrelated issues. It is necessary
that we work from every angle to dismantle the systematic harms that have been
inflicted upon us.

“The
violence being done to Black communities and families by closing our schools is
just another form of killing, just another marker of Black life being devalued
by this City.”, says Janae Bonsu, BYP100 Chicago Chapter Co-Chair.

While
addressing the crowd outside CPD Headquarters on the 20th, Jitu Brown spoke on
behalf of the Dyett hunger strikers: "We look at our children and see
love; they look and see inmates." With that, Brown speaks to how the
struggle for Dyett goes beyond just the school’s walls. The Dyett campaign
represents the lack of opportunities, jobs, police accountability and overall
lack of rights in Black communities. That’s what makes this moment extremely
urgent amidst police killings and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. We have to
prove that our lives actually matter and can do so by showing that education in
black communities is actually valued and protected. It is with love for our
children and commitment to their well-being in spite of the continued assault
on their—and thus our—futures that BYP100 stands in solidarity with the Dyett
hunger strikers.

For
more information regarding the #FightForDyett campaign click here.

###

Black
Youth Project 100 (BYP100) is an
activist member-based organization of Black 18-35 year olds, dedicated to
creating justice and freedom for all Black people. We do this through building
a network focused on transformative leadership development, direct action
organizing, advocacy and education using a Black queer feminist lens. We are an
organization affiliated with the Black Youth Project

Rethinking Schools expresses solidarity with the 12 parents, grandparents, educators, and their supporters who are in the second week of a hunger strike for the Dyett High School of Global Leadership and Green Technology, an open enrollment public high school in Chicago’s historic African American Bronzeville neighborhood.

Our friends and colleagues with Chicago’s Teachers for Social Justice summarize the background of this struggle:
​​
“In 2012 CPS voted to phase out Dyett after years of disinvestment and sabotage. It closed this last spring despite years of protest, organizing, arrests, and pleas to the mayor-appointed Board of Education. Dyett was the LAST open enrollment public high school in Bronzeville, where gentrification is intense and charters proliferate. The plan for a revitalized Dyett (an academically rigorous, culturally relevant, community-grounded, critical, inquiry-based, social justice school focused on preparing young people to be community and global leaders and stewards of the earth) was developed through an intensive four-year process in collaboration with a coalition of community partners
​
“The fight for Dyett is the focal point of the racial justice, anti-neoliberal struggle to defend and transform public education in Chicago. It pits African American parents, students, teachers, and community residents and their Chicago Teachers Union and city-wide allies against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his political and corporate allies. This is a critical battle. Twelve people are risking their health to fight for the right of African American children to have a high quality public education in 2015.”

Education Not Criminalization

We Charge Genocide Supports the Dyett Hunger Strikers

August 25, 2015

Today is the ninth day of the Dyett hunger strike, and grandmother Irene Robinson is now in Provident Hospital. Ms. Robinson is just one of the dozen parents, grandparents, teachers, and community members who have put their bodies on the line to #FightForDyett--a successful community school in Bronzeville that over the years was disinvested in and targeted for closure by Chicago Public Schools until it was phased out. The school now sits shuttered.

The continued assault on high quality public education in Black communities is another form of violence against Black youth in Chicago.Like arbitrary and invasive stops and frisks on Chicago streets—the same streets on which these schools are being closed—educational inequities serve as a reminder that young Black people are not valued by the City of Chicago. It also sends the message that Black neighborhoods do not deserve development opportunities as other neighborhoods, even while they are heavily policed.

It is deeply powerful that the Dyett hunger strike, led primarily by Black women, is happening during Black August, a month of study and action that often includes fasting in solidarity with political prisoners and Black people killed by state violence.

Dyett’s slated closure is part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his appointed CPS Board’s ongoing effort to undermine high quality public education, community schools, and the Chicago Teachers Union. This was most dramatically displayed by the 2012 teachers’ strike and the 2013 closure of 50 neighborhood schools serving mostly Black students and employing mostly Black teachers and staff. The mayor’s undermining of public schools and preference for privatization and wresting school decisions away from communities of color is racist educational policy meant to reshape Chicago for the wealthy and the white. The neglect and punishment of youth through inadequate educational access in Black neighborhoods is all part of a slow genocide of our communities.

We Charge Genocide recognizes that abolishing systems of oppression, including prisons and police, also requires continued investment in strong community institutions — including strong neighborhood community schools.

We rise in solidarity with the community leaders at Dyett, and urge you to join us in supporting them however you are able.

The Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School helped develop a proposal for a Global Leadership and Green Technology High School that we would love to see in action. Dyett has hosted successful community-run initiatives before, including when it was a leader in Restorative Justice, decreasing student arrests by 83% in one year. Restorative justice in schools is an essential part of dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and building the world without police that we long to see.

CALL TO ACTION

Call Mayor Emanuel at (312) 744-3300,Alderman Will Burns at (773) 536-8103, andCPS CEO Forrest Claypool at (773) 553-1500 and tell them that you support the Dyett hunger strikers and demand that they meet with them and support the community’s wishes for the Dyett Global Leadership & Green Technology HS.

Along with political education and demonstration, Black August is traditionally a time for fasting and sacrifice in solidarity. Pleasevisit the Dyett hunger strikers and consider joining them in solidarity fasts—already being participated in by hundreds of individuals around the country today.

Search the hashtags #FightForDyett and#WeAreDyett, and spread news of the hunger strike far and wide. Talk to your family, friends, and neighbors about the connections between strong community-run schools and all forms of state violence against Black people.

Monday, August 24, 2015BREAKING: New Orleans' Urban South Grassroots Research Collective Supports The Dyett Hunger Strikers in Chicago

(English statement)
Dear community of Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School,

We want to express our support, solidarity and respect for the struggle you are in today
in Chicago.

A few days ago, we learned about your brave and admirable decision to initiate a hunger
strike to defend the right to education, and to show the strength that unites your community. We
understand this hunger strike is an extreme means to confront the indolence of Chicago’s
political officials.

As Chileans, we are very familiar and understand how neoliberal policies hurt public
education and destroy schools and communities. These policies started hand-in-hand with a
bloody dictatorship in Chile and were absurdly maintained by the elected governments that
followed. We regret to know that Chicago students, families and teachers are also suffering
these policies, protected under interests concerned with creating educational markets and
taking away the existence of public education for our lives. Neoliberalism is a global project,
which has inflicted pain in our society, and that creates destruction in each and every place
where its policies are implemented. Globalizing our struggles through solidarity is much needed
in these times.

We commit to spread the word about these events in Chicago throughout Latin America
and will stay informed about your situation. We value the movement of your community, and we
unconditionally support the cause to stop the painful closing of your school.

Monday, August 24, 2015BREAKING: Puerto Rico's Teachers Federation (FMPR) Offers Solidarity Statement Supporting the Dyett Hunger StrikersDear Chicago Hunger Strikers,Brothers and sisters, we write in behalf of the Teachers Federation in Puerto Rico to express our deepest solidarity and sympathies. The struggle against the corporate reform on education is the same one across the globe. The rich and wealthy want to deprive poor and marginalized communities of their constitutional right to public education.Currently we have an organized community in Puerto Rico from the Elementary José Meléndez Ayala School in Manatí that has been occupying their school for the past 85 days, in order to avoid its closure. Their speaker, is a mother of three, cancer survivor, college student named Tania Ginés. She sends you all her support and solidarity as well.Our government proposes to shut down 600 schools in response to their neoliberal scheme against public education. Teachers are been threatened to lose their jobs and labor rights. All part of a dominant class plan to enrich themselves and fulfill their private interests. The 1% that control the wealth, want to control our lives and lead us to precarious life conditions. NO MORE! Communities are taking a stand against this.These corporate moguls want to leave our children uneducated, because they know that an educated population is a threat to those vicious corporate reformers with greed to fill their pockets at the cost of depriving students of their right to educate themselves.Your heroic action to starve yourselves in defense of public education is admirable. It's sad that those that have leading positions on school boards and in administrative position the DOE do not take into count the necessities of the school communities. Count with our support!In solidarity,Mercedes Martínez

On behalf of
more than 4,000 educators in the Portland Association of Teachers, I’m writing
to express our support for the parents, grandparents, and community members
fighting to keep Dyett High School open.

It’s shameful
that a dozen parents, grandparents, and community members have been forced to
launch a hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of one of the last
public schools in Chicago’s historic African American Bronzeville community.

This closure is
another example of what our brothers and sisters in the Chicago Teachers Union
have labeled “educational apartheid.” Chicago’s African American and Latino
neighborhoods are not a laboratory for education reform “experiments” —they
deserve first rate public schools, not successive waves of school closings.

We urge the
School Board to remember that public schools belong to the public. They are not
the property of elected officials or hand-picked appointees such as themselves.
As such they have a responsibility to listen to the public and keep neighborhood
schools like Dyett High School open.

As educators and
union members, committed to social justice, we will do whatever we can to
support the hunger strikers, and their fight for quality public schools for all Chicago students.

An injury to one
is an injury to all!

In Solidarity,

Gwen Sullivan,
President

Portland
Association of Teachers

Sunday, August 23, 2015

(photo credit: Mercedez Martinez)

BREAKING: Dyett Hunger Strike Offers Statement of Solidarity Support to Puerto Rico's Teachers Fighting Against Privatization(Spanish Translation Follows)To Our Brothers and Sisters in Puerto Rico,We write to you, on this the 7th day of our hunger strike, to express our solidarity with you as we fight this corporate enemy to education. As we starve ourselves in symbolism of the way our communities have been starved of resources in order to feed the banks and private interests, we know that you, too, are with us in this struggle. Our spirit is with you and we gain energy from your strength and hope you gain strength from us as well. We will not allow these predators to continually prey upon our young. We will not continually allow these colonizers to build their dreams and the dreams of their children on our backs and on the backs of our children. We stand in solidarity with you as we seek to take back the education of our children from the hands of these so-called corporate “reformers” who have deformed education for Black and Brown children across the globe. We stand with you in the fight to transform education from a culture of compliance to a culture where our young people are taught to question and challenge the status quo. We stand with you, arm and arm, on this battlefield dependent on your support and on the support of our brothers and sisters around the world to defeat this enemy. Keep up the fine fight!In solidarity, Chicago Hunger StrikersA nuestros hermanos y nuestras hermanas de Puerto Rico, Nos dirigimos a ustedes, en este el 7 º día de la huelga de hambre, para expresar nuestra solidaridad con ustedes ya que luchamos contra este enemigo corporativo a la educación. Como nos privamos de comida en simbolismo de la forma en que nuestras comunidades han sido carentes de recursos con el fin de alimentar a los bancos y los intereses privados, sabemos que ustedes, también, están con nosotros en esta lucha. Nuestro espíritu está con ustedes y obtenemos energía de sus fuerzas y con la esperanza que ustedes obtengan fuerza de nosotros también. No permitiremos que estos depredadores se alimenten continuamente de nuestros jóvenes. No vamos a permitir que estos colonizadores continuamente construyan sus sueños y los sueños de sus niños en nuestras espaldas y en las espaldas de nuestros hijos. Estamos en solidaridad con usted mientras buscamos retomar la educación de nuestros niños de las manos de estos llamados "reformistas" corporativas que han deformado la educación para los niños de color, negros y marrón en todo el mundo. Estamos con ustedes en la lucha por transformar la educación de una cultura de respeto a la cultura donde nuestros jóvenes se les enseña a cuestionar y desafiar el status quo. Estamos con ustedes, en brazo y brazo, en este campo de batalla dependiendo de su apoyo y con el apoyo de nuestros hermanos y nuestras hermanas alrededor del mundo para derrotar a este enemigo. ¡Mantenga La Buena Lucha!En solidaridad, Huelguistas de hambre de Chicago

Friday 21, 2015BREAKING: Statement by Schools and Communities United in solidarity with the hunger strikers and their struggle to revitalize Dyett High School